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In answer to your free will, fulfilling your
dearest wishes, welcoming your constant requests for change
and eruption as well as your desire for action and
enterprise, listening to your calls to revolt, your armed
forces have undertaken to overthrow the reactionary and
corrupted regime whose stench suffocated and whose vision
horrified us. In a single blow, your valiant army has upset
the idols and smashed their effigies. In a single stroke, it
has illuminated the dark night in which succeeded one
another, first the Turkish and Italian domination, then
finally, that of a reactionary and rotten regime where
reigned concussion, fractions, felony and treachery. From
now on, Libya is a free and sovereign republic, named the
Libyan Arab Republic which, by the grace of God is setting
herself to work. She will go forward on the path of freedom,
union and social justice, guaranteeing each of her
sons/daughters the right to equality, and opening before
them the door of honest work, from which shall be banished
injustice and exploitation, and where no one shall be either
master or servant, where everyone shall be free brothers,
within a society where shall prosperity and quality, by the
grace of God. Give us your hands, open your hearts to us,
forget all adversities and make front molded in a single
block against the enemy of the Arab nation, the enemy of
Islam, the enemy of humanity, who set our sanctuaries afire,
and flouted our honour. Thus shall we build our glory,
revive our inheritance, vindicate our ravaged dignity and
the rights we were deprived of. Oh! You, who witnessed the
sacred struggle of our hero Omar Al Mukthar for Libya, for
Arabism and for Islam Oh! You, who fought alongside Ahmed
Al-Sherif for a just ideal; you sons of the desert; you sons
of our ancient cities; you sons of our green countryside;
you sons of our beautiful villages; the time for work has
arrived. Let us go forward! At this juncture, I am pleased
to tell our foreign friends that they must fear neither for
their properties nor for their lives. They are under the
protection of the armed forces. Moreover, I wish they would
rest assured that our present undertaking is directed
neither against nor against any acknowledged international
treaty of international law. This is an exclusively domestic
affair concerning Libya and her endemic problems. Forward
then and peace be with you.
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Democracy means popular power, not popular expression.
The members of the Jamahiriya society proclaim that
power belongs to the people. The people exercise this
power directly, without intermediary or representative,
within the Popular Congresses and the popular
Committees.
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The
members of Jamahiriya society hold sacred the life of
the individual and protect it. They prohibit his
alienation. Imprisonment may be used only against an
individual whose freedom represents a danger or a
contamination for others. The goal of any punishment is
cleansing of society, protection of its values and its
interests. Jamahiriya society proscribes any punishment
that would violate the dignity and the integrity of a
human being, such as forced labor or long term
imprisonment. Jamahiriya society prohibits any and all
injuries, whether physical or moral, against the person
of a prisoner. It condemns any and all speculations and
experiments, whatever their nature, to which he might be
subjected. A punishment is personal and is to be
suffered by an individual as a consequence of a criminal
act upon which it is necessarily contingent. The
punishment and its consequences cannot be extended to
the parents and relatives of the criminal. Each soul
earned only on its own account, not doth any laden bear
another's load.
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The
members of Jamahiriya society are, in times pf peace,
free to travel wherever they please and free to choose
their place of residence.
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Citizenship in Jamahiriya society is a sacred right. No
one may be deprived or deprived or dispossessed of it.
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The
members of Jamahiriya society prohibit clandestine
action, resorting to force in all its forms, violence,
terrorism and sabotage. Such acts constitute a betrayal
of the values and principles of Jamahiriya society which
affirms the sovereignty of the individual within the
Basic Popular Congresses, thereby guaranteeing him the
right to publicly express his opinion. They reject
violence as a means intended to dictate ideas and
opinions.
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They adopt the democratic dialogue as the one and only
method of debate, and consider any hostile act against
Jamahiriya society, whatever it may be, and connected
with a foreign entity, as high treason towards it.
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The
members of Jamahiriya society are free to form
association, trade unions and leagues in order to defend
their professional interests.
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The
members of Jamahiriya society are free in their private
acts and their personal relationships. No one may
interfere with their privacy save in the event of a
complaint from one of the partners involved, or if the
act or the relationship are harmful or prejudicial to
society or are conflicting with its values.
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The
members of the Jamahiriya society hold sacred the life
of a human being and protect it. The goal of Jamahiriya
society is to abolish capital punishment. In view of
this, the death penalty should only be ruled against an
individual whose very existence constitutes a danger or
is deleterious to society. The condemned man may
request a mitigation of his sentence or he may, in
compensation for his life, offer a personal tribute.
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The
court may commute the sentence if this decision is
neither prejudicial to society nor conflicting with
human values. The members of Jamahiriya society condemn
the enforcement of capital punishment through loathsome
methods, such as the electric chair, toxic gas or
injections.
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Jamahiriya society guarantees the right to pleas before
court and the independence of justice. Each of its
members is entitled to a fair and honest trial.
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The
members of Jamahiriya society base their judgments on a
sacred law: religion or custom, whose provisions are
lasting and unalterable, and for which no other law may
substitute. They proclaim that religion is absolute
faith in the Divinity, and that is a sacred spiritual
value. Religion is personal to each one and common to
all. It is a direct relationship with the Creator,
without any intermediary. Jamahiriya society proscribes
the monopoly of religion as well as its exploitation for
purposes of subversion, fanaticism, sectarianism,
partisan spirit and fratricidal wars.
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Jamahiriya society guarantees the right of work. This is
a right and a duty for and a duty for everyone, within
the limits of his own personal efforts or in association
with others. Each member of the society is entitled to
practice the profession of his choice. Jamahiriya
society is a society of partners and not of
wage-earners. Property, which is fruit of much labor,
is sacred and protected; it may not be touched save in
the public interest and against fair compensation.
Jamahiriya society is free from wage-earning slavery and
asserts the right of each worker to his labor and his
production. Only he, who produces, may consume.
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The
members of Jamahiriya society are liberated from any
feudalism. Land is the property of no one. Each one has
the right to farm it and to derive profit from it
through labor, agriculture or breeding during his
lifetime and the lives of his heirs, within the limits
of his own efforts and the fulfillment of his needs.
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The
members of Jamahiriya society are free from any rental
fees. A house belongs to the one who dwells in it. It
enjoys a sacred immunity, in the respect of neighborhood
rights, the rights of your close or faraway neighbors.
The dwelling may not be used for purposes harmful to
society.
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Jamahiriya society is one of solidarity. It ensures to
every one of its members a dignified and prosperous
life, it provides them with high quality health care so
that it may become a healthy society. And it guarantees
the protection and care of childhood, motherhood, old
age and of the handicapped. Jamahiriya society is the
guardian of all those without protection.
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Instruction and knowledge are natural rights of each and
everyone. Any individual is entitled to select his
instruction and the knowledge that neither suits him,
without restrictions nor forced guidance.
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Jamahiriya society is a society of the good and noble
values. It hold human ideals and principles sacred. It
ultimate purpose is a humanitarian society from which
aggression, war, exploitation and terrorism will be
banished, and where no difference will subsist between
the powerful and the powerless. All nations, all peoples
and all national communities have the right to live
freely, according to their choices and the principles of
self-determination. They have the right to establish
their national entity. Minorities have the right to
safeguard their own entity and heritage. The legitimate
aspirations of those minorities cannot be repressed.
Minorities may not either be forcefully assimilated
within one or several nations or national communities.
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The
members of Jamahiriya society affirm the right of
everyone to share in the benefits, advantages, values
and principles which are the fruit of harmony, cohesion,
unity, affinity and affection among the family, the
tribe, the nation and mankind. To this end, the members
of Jamahiriya society are working to establish the
natural national entity of their nation and support all
these who are fighting to achieve this same goal. They
reject any and all segregation between men, whether
based on color, race, creed and culture.
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The
members of Jamahiriya society protect freedom. They
defend it throughout the world. They support the
oppressed, and incite all peoples to face injustice,
oppression, explanation and colonialism. They encourage
them to fight imperialist, racism and fascism, in
accordance with the principle of the collective struggle
of people against the enemies of freedom.
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Jamahiriya society is one of splendor and fulfillment.
It guarantees everyone the right of thought, of creation
and innovation. Jamahiriya society is working towards
the development of sciences, arts and humanities. It
ensures their dissemination among the popular masses so
as to prevent their monopoly.
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The
members of Jamahiriya society affirm the sacred right of
man to be born into a cohesive family where motherhood,
fatherhood and brotherhood are offered to him. The
development of a human being conforms to its own nature
only if it is the fruit of natural maternity and
nursing. A child must be raised by his mother.
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The
members of Jamahiriya society, whether men or women, are
equal in every human respect. The distinction of rights
between men and women is a flagrant injustice that
nothing whatsoever can justify. They proclaim that
marriage is an equitable association between two equal
partners. No one may be occurred into a marriage
contract, or divorce except by mutual consent or after a
fair judgment. It is unjust to deprive children of their
mother and the mother of her home.
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The
members of Jamahiriya society consider servants to be
the modern age slaves, human beings enslaved by their
masters. No law governs their situation and no
guarantees or protections are afforded them. They live
under the despotism of their master, they are the
victims of this tyranny, in order to survive they are
compelled by necessity to accomplish work that insults
their dignity and their human feelings. In view of
this, Jamahiriya society proscribes the hiring of
servants in the homes. A house should be maintained by
its owners.
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The
members of Jamahiriya society are convinced that peace
among nations can ensure them prosperity, abundance and
harmony. They call for an end to the arms trade and to
their manufacturing for exporting purposes. The arms
industry constitutes a squandering of the wealth of
societies, an increase of the individual tax burden, a
propagation of destruction and annihilations throughout
the world.
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The
members of Jamahiriya society call for suppression of
nuclear, bacteriological and chemical weapons, as well
as of any other means of massive extermination and
destruction. They call for the elimination of all
existing stocks, for the preservation of mankind against
the dangers represented by the waste from nuclear power
plants.
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The
members of Jamahiriya society pledge to protect their
society as well as the political system based on popular
power. They further pledge to safeguard its values,
principles and interests. They regard collective defense
as the only means of preserve these. They consider that
the defense of their society is the responsibility of
each and every citizen, man and woman. None can find a
substituted in the face of death.
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The
members of Jamahiriya society are committed to the bases
laid out by this Charter. They shall not permit that it
be violated and they shall refrain from committing any
act conflicting with the principles and rights that it
guarantees. Each member is entitled to plead his case
before a court of law to request legal redress against
any violation of the rights and liberties set forth by
this Charter.
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The
members of Jamahiriya society proudly offer to the world
the Green Book, the guide and path towards emancipation
and the achievement of freedom. They announce to the
popular masses the advent of a New Era from which
corrupted regimes will be banished and all traces of
tyranny and exploitation eradicated.
The General People's Congress of the Great
Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
Baida, on 28 Chawal 1397 after the Prophet's death 12
Assayf/June 1988/ |
